Archive for May 27th, 2009

The Mets have suffered a rash of injuries recently, seeing some of their best players like Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado forced onto the DL; it looks like the loss of Reyes is really going to hurt the Mets, since they apparently have decided to forgo the shortstop position and realign their defense. It’s radical but it just might work…

While everyone in America was getting drunk at barbecues on Monday, across the ocean near Gloucester, England, throngs of spectators and participants got together for what is now a 200+ year tradition, the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake. Thousands of spectators come to watch the 5 downhill and 4 uphill races with the winners taking home the greatest prize of all, the 8 pound Double Gloucester cheese wheel they were chasing. The Big Picture, as ever, has some incredible hi-res shots that you should check out, in the meantime, let me whet your appetite here.

The usual injuries from this event are concussions and broken bones, but really, when you consider that you get to take home 8 pounds of cheese, I think it’s well worth it. However, I am slightly disappointed in the size of the cheese wheel, they should have varying sizes, I want to see people try and take down like a 8 foot diameter cheese wheel. As loyal reader The Sister noted in passing this link along to me; these are real elite athletes (even if they are British.)

The goal in the race is to conceivably catch the cheese wheel, but being that it gets a one second head-start and can reach speeds up to 70 mph, the winner is usually the first person across the line at the bottom. Interestingly, during WWII, due to rationing, the race was held using a wooden wheel with a small piece of cheese inside it instead.

Here’s a question for you out there, currently, Manny Ramirez is the 4th highest vote getter for outfielders for this season’s All Star game, despite him being out for 50 games for testing positive for steroids. In the AL, Alex Rodriguez is likely to be the leading vote getter at his position. Both players have been linked directly with steroids in the last few months — although supposedly A-Rod’s trangressions were all in the past — but are now in a position to be feted and honored by the sport and the fans. Is this right?

The NFL instituted the “Shawn Merriman Rule” which makes a player who tests positive for PEDs ineligible from the Pro Bowl, should MLB consider something similar?

I’m interested in your opinions out there. Mine is that if you test positive in a season you should be ineligible for any All Star games or post season awards for that season. This is not a directly anti-Manny backlash, but he’s just the first player where this situation has directly come up; there wasn’t a lot of worry about JC Romero getting anywhere near the All Star game before. What do YOU think?

The Big Aristotle, Shaquille O’Neal has been a voracious user of Twitter, becoming in the process one of the most popular people on the useless service. Always one up for some competition, Shaq sent this message to Lance Armstrong, “I challenge u to a race any time any place, it’s time someone challenged u.”

Lance replied back “Alright Shaq, you’re on. To quote the great Ricky Bobby, ‘Bring it on trying to bring me down.'”

I only see Shaq winning if he gets to ride his dope motorcycle.

Ever one to seize an opportunity, Shaq also challenged Danica Patrick to a race, somehow though methinks he wouldn’t fit so much in an F1 car…

Please join us in this cause and sign the petition below so we can all share in this special and fantastic moment of baseball history. THANKS!SIGN THE PETITION HERE! AND PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND PASS THIS ALONG!